MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

What Just Happened?

Posted by M. C. on December 12, 2023

“All these idiots whose ‘identity’ is literally a ‘protected class’ are not protesting anything. Their whole victim act is sponsored, enabled & signal boosted by every powerful institution. The entire elaborate charade amounts to power petitioning itself.” —Aimee Terese on X

And now, an even bigger question looms: with Wokery unraveling on campus, will it now also unravel the Party of Chaos — and its ability to act as Globalism’s fifth column undermining our country? Personally, I think it is indeed the beginning of the end of all that, especially the disgraced intellectual class of America’s ability to play along for mere social status brownie points.

James Howard Kunstler

If you haven’t discerned this yet, the Party of Chaos — Globalism’s “fifth column” in America — lost ground badly in early December even as the country supposedly enters its annual Christmastime coma. You know what a fifth column is? I will explain: it is a subversive enemy force operating inside a nation to sabotage its interests. The Party of Chaos, of course, is the party of “Joe Biden” the fictitious “president” euchered in plain sight to that position via flagrant chicanery in the 2020 Super Tuesday primary and then the free-for-all fraud-o-rama of the general election that year.

     This subversive Party of Chaos (with Marxist characteristics), has worked overtime for years to mindfuck Americans into destroying their own country. Just think of the absurdities you are asked to swallow daily and the punishments meted out for opposing them. It all came to an interesting inflection point lately with the three presidents of exalted universities failing spectacularly to cover their asses in congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus.

     At issue was why, after years of grandstanding on the oppression of victim groups, and censoring, silencing, cancelling, and crucifying alternate opinions, they gave their students and faculty a pass in recent weeks on yelling for the extermination of Jews. Wow, did that business disorder the whole Woke cosmography! I’ll tell you why:

     My people, the Jews, including a major chunk of the intellectual class, assumed leadership in the Woke crusade because the Holocaust of the 1940s established us as the world’s premier oppressed victim group. That badge of honor stuck for decades. Seventy percent of American Jews vote for the Party of Chaos, which used to be the Party of Civil Rights, which used to be synonymous with truth and justice. Thus, for decades, we American Jews were able to feel marinated in virtue.

     Incidentally, the reason American Jews went all in for the Civil Rights movement was because after the big war and all its horrors they felt a victory for expanded tolerance and acceptance in America — the defeat of “Jim Crow” in particular — could only be a good thing for Jews, who, by the way, had demonstrated that a former “out” group could succeed spectacularly in 20th century America if permitted to try, which suggested that other “out” groups could too, and ought to be allowed to try. For Jews, America turned out to be the promised land, and one can easily see how that rhetoric jibed so well with Martin Luther King and his followers in the 1960s.

     But the Civil Rights crusade is history now and American intellectuals, Jews especially, appear to be secretly disillusioned and rather ashamed at the less than satisfactory results, such as intractable black poverty and crime. Successful American Jews have been out of their own ghettos for decades, and they have no desire to live adjacent to any black ghetto if they can help it — though they would never dare admit it. However, they flocked to and flourished in the ghetto of elite academia, where they could make a good living in the commerce of ideas, luxuriate in enhanced social status (especially at Ivy League schools), with the bonus of fabulously easy work requirements (two classes a week and then summers off, what a deal!).

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Canadian Human Rights Commission Labels Christmas Celebration “Discrimination Grounded In Colonialism”

Posted by M. C. on December 12, 2023

Tyler Durden's Photo

by Tyler Durden

Trudeau’s “Happy Holiday” present to Canada.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/canadian-human-rights-commission-labels-christmas-celebration-discrimination-grounded

The cancerous spread of woke ideology into every facet of society and government is more obvious in some places compared to others, but every so often the movement crosses a line and sparks considerable opposition.  In the US, the social justice movement seems to have hit a few snags; numerous companies adopting and promoting ESG related propaganda have been pummeled with successful boycotts, losing billions in profits and in stock value.  Overall public sentiment is quickly turning against major universities as a root source of woke beliefs.  And, government officials pandering to the extreme left are confronted with increasing vitriol from the populace.

It would seem that Canadians are also hitting their limit these days when it comes to the far-left, and it took a thinly veiled attack on Christmas to do it.

Part of the ongoing invasion of the woke movement involves regular attempts to undermine Christian holidays as “problematic” and archaic.  Leftists argue that increasing diversity (mostly through open border policies or illegal immigration) requires increasing inclusion at the national level.  Meaning, it is not for immigrants to adapt to the west, the west must adapt to them.  National celebrations like Christmas are therefore a representation of “discrimination” because they are being given preference over minority holidays.

This was the message given by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) in a paper published under the radar in October.  The treatise on “Religious Intolerance” was then condemned in a motion unanimously adopted on Nov. 30 by the House of Commons, the lower chamber of the Canadian Parliament.  The paper cited Christianity’s two biggest holy days (Christmas and Easter) as examples of “present-day systemic religious discrimination” linked to colonialism because they are statutory holidays in Canada.

The CHRC was established by the Canadian government in 1977 and claims to be an “independent” watchdog.  It is empowered under the Canadian Human Rights Act to investigate and to settle complaints of discrimination in employment and in the provision of services within federal jurisdiction.  The group is similar to the ACLU in that its momentum is ever to the deepest reaches of the political left.  Their ideological positions carry weight in the higher echelons of government; for example, their paper attacking Christmas has since been avidly defended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The woke all-or-nothing argument against state recognized religious holidays is built on a host of illogical demands.  First and foremost, Canada is a majority Christian nation, with 53.3% of the population identifying as Christian, 34.6% identifying as non-affiliated, and around 12% identifying with several other faiths.  The next largest religious group in Canada is Muslim, representing only 5% of the religious population.  

But what about that 34% of people who are non-affiliated?  Do they feel discriminated against by national Christmas celebrations?  No, not really.

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US-Made Munitions Used In Israel’s White Phosphorous Attacks On Lebanon; WaPo

Posted by M. C. on December 12, 2023

Tyler Durden's Photo

by Tyler Durden

Via The Cradle,

#Napalm by any other name#

War crimes are OK if you are helping a “friend”.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-made-munitions-used-israels-white-phosphorous-attacks-lebanon

The Israeli army used US-manufactured white phosphorous shells in a brutal attack on south Lebanon in October, the Washington Post reported Monday, citing an analysis of shell fragments found in the southern Lebanese village of Al-Dhahira. 

Washington Post journalist came across the remnants of three 155-millimeter artillery shells near the border. Production codes found on the shells indicate that they were made by ammunition depots in Louisiana and Arkansas in 1989 and 1992.

White phosphorus fired by Israeli army on Nov.12. via Reuters

Residents told the journalist that the shells in question “incinerated at least four homes.” Nine people were injured in the white phosphorous attack, which reportedly took place on October 16, including three who were hospitalized. 

Photos and videos verified by Amnesty International show the white phosphorus falling on Al-Dhahira on October 16.  “Israeli forces continued to shell the town with white phosphorus munitions for hours,” trapping residents in their homes until 7:00 AM the next day, locals told the Washington Post, adding that they now refer to that evening as the “black night.”

Israel has used white phosphorous on southern Lebanon over 60 times since the war began in October, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). “The Israeli army fired artillery shells containing white phosphorus, an incendiary weapon, in military operations along Lebanon’s southern border between 10 and 16 October 2023,” Amnesty International said on October 31st, adding that the October 16 attack must be immediately investigated as a war crime.

Israel claimed its use of the banned munitions was in line with international law, given that they used them to create “smokescreens” and not for targeting, according to an army statement.

 However, the October 16 white phosphorous attack took place at night, when “smoke would have little practical use … and [when] there were no Israeli troops on the Lebanese side of the border to mask with smokescreens,” Washington Post said. 

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New Orleans Restaurants Under Attack

Posted by M. C. on December 12, 2023

Walter Block

The next time you hear that a private restaurant has not passed the review of a government agency, do not blithely assume there is something wrong with the former. It may well be due to the failure of the latter.

https://substack.com/inbox/post/139704332

The headline practically screamed: “30 New Orleans area restaurants fail health inspection, some for bugs or dirty kitchens.” Undoubtedly, many people in the Crescent City as a result reduced their take outs from these eateries, several of them world famous, and also decreased eating out in them. If so, they did so in favor of grocery stores, which now seemed relatively more reliable, health-wise. This might be somewhat of an exaggeration, since the story allowed that “… more than 16 … don’t have food safety certificates to ensure their kitchens meet health standards.” As far as we know, they were perfectly clean, but merely lacked proper government certification thereof. Should the local citizenry be worried?

The more discerning of us have to be forgiven for asking: Who do you trust more: the restaurants themselves, or the government health inspectors? The former can lose money from dirtiness, the latter cannot, at least not, personally, for failing to make accurate assessments.

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What is the solution to this conundrum? The course of action emanating from this present quarter is to substitute private certification agencies for the ones perpetrated by government. Is this the ravings of a radical free market advocate such as myself? Is this a mirage, something just plain crazy that can never be implemented?  Yes and no. As to the former, this appellation certainly fits me. I hold an endowed chair in free enterprise economics at a local university. As to the latter, it is no concoction in my fevered brain. Rather, capitalist certification agencies are to be found all throughout the modern economy. Let us count some of the ways.

But, before I do, let me explain the difference between licensing and certification. In both cases, a test must be passed. But with the former, if you do not pass the exam, you may not legally engage in the industry. For example, if you fail the bar exam, you cannot work as a lawyer. If you do not pass the medical examination, and worked in the capacity of a physician anyway, you are a criminal and can be incarcerated. In sharp contrast, if you do not score high enough in the exam for Certified Public Accountant, you can still keep financial books for your clients; it would only be illegal to pass yourself off as a CPA.

Where else besides accounting is certification, not licensing, in operation? One aspect is brand names. McDonalds, Walmart, Microsoft, Toyota, and thousands of other companies large and small, stand by their wares and offerings. They are in effect insuring their customers that what they purchase from them is of a certain quality.

Another example is testing laboratories.

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Why David Brooks, the Atlantic and the New York Times are Irrelevant

Posted by M. C. on December 11, 2023

The Atlantic slimes Substack, I slap back.

elizabeth nickson

(this is an old piece but few subscribers have read it, and since the mainstream has started throwing shade onto Substack…..

“Brooks is irrelevant,” I snapped to a email friend who sent me David Brooks’ recent self-congratulatory snooze-fest “Why Conservatism is Dead Because it Doesn’t Listen To Me”, in The Atlantic. “Furthermore,” I continued, “The New York Times is irrelevant, and all its columnists are irrelevant because they just are.”  

Remember Time Magazine?  A few short decades ago, it was the dominant magazine in the world. Ten million copies a week sold for real money. Pages and pages of advertising. Now, it’s a joke edited by a woman who I used to report for and who, trust me, is a bear of limited brain. And that fate is soon coming for the Atlantic, the Times and most other broadsheets. They are, as someone clever (Sarah Hoyt) recently said, barking orders at platoons of invisible foot soldiers, their world hollowing out beneath them.

One of my last editors informed me “we are gatekeepers,” to my stunned silence. This was a charming woman, who I adored, but who had never done anything but copy edit her way to editorship, had virtually no life experience, and as far as I could see, no real interests, other than her career and Holt Renfrew. Honey, I grew up in Westmount and there were a whole lotta women who thought they were gatekeepers too. Their world? Vanished without a trace. This goes for almost anyone dug into the current “mainstream” of the culture, wrapped up in a plush packet, filled with velvet and down and praise for lo these many years. None of them has any idea of how real life is lived.

To a man or woman, right and left, they are all scathing of the messy unwashed populists thronging the streets of the world fit to be tied by their lives being foreshortened with every single year that passes. Like Brooks, they flatter themselves with droning graduate level synopses of conservative (or liberal) thought over the ages, compare it to Trump’s syntax and cry ‘Civilization is DEAD!”

Never mind the badly dressed, snorting barely-humans at the barricades. They have no beef, no complaint, just shut up. They are anathema, human garbage who dare to rebel against the ferocious incompetence of their so-called leaders who have assumed police power over every aspect of their lives. Brooks et al are part of the New Class, a group identified by William F, Buckley’s National Review sometime in the 70’s, forgive me for not bothering to check, I have just plodded my way through several thousand words of basic conservative thought history, which I rather hoped I’d read for the last time, the last time I was plodding through the virtues of Locke and Montesquiou and Burke.

The New Class for those who haven’t done the plodding is that modern caste of brahmins and mandarin bureaucrats who simply know better and who clip a bit of every dollar in the economy until those dollars reach those people who produce the product as 40% of what’s left. Every career politician, bureaucrat, contract worker, academic, consultant, union head, etc etc etc.  The people my industrialist father used to call parasites.

Anyway to get to the part where Brooks says conservatism is dead, despite the three billion strong furious anti-government populists simmering in their houses, getting ready to take power, because damn, this is coming whether Brooks likes it or not. Turns out he doesn’t actually have an argument. He just devolves into Trump frenzy.

Let me count the risibilities:

1. Conservatism ended with Mitt Romney in 2012. (I died laughing at that one – the vulture capitalist is the true conservative.)

2. Populists are spiritually sick because they don’t listen to the New Class anymore. (Do you ever ever ask yourself why?)

3. We know better. We can cite Burke.

4. All of life is seen as an incessant class struggle between oligarchic elites and the common volk (well yeah)

5. A lot of my friends are trying to reclaim the GOP and make it a conservative party once again. I cheer them on  (ie listen you common volk who can’t cite Burke)

6. He makes the usual charge of racism at Americans complaining about people and criminals flooding across the southern border, calling it a rejection of “pluralism”.

Because Brooks never leaves his leafy bower, he has no idea how people live anymore.

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30 Population Control Quotes That Show That The Elite Truly Believe That Humans Are A Plague Upon The Earth

Posted by M. C. on December 11, 2023

Posted byMadge Waggy

5. CNN Founder Ted Turner: “A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.”

18. Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger: “All of our problems are the result of overbreeding among the working class”

Of course Attenborough and Rockefeller are in the list.

There is a clear consensus among the global elite that overpopulation is the primary cause of the most important problems that the world is facing and that something desperately needs to be done about it.  They truly believe that humans are a plague upon the earth and that we will literally destroy the planet if we are left to our own devices.  To the elite, everything from global warming to our growing economic problems can be directly traced back to the lack of population control.  They warn that if nothing is done about the exploding population, we will be facing a future full of poverty, war and suffering on a filthy, desolate planet.  They complain that it “costs too much” to keep elderly patients that are terminally ill alive, and they eagerly promote abortion for babies that are “not wanted” because they would be “too much of a burden” on society.  Anything that reduces the human population in any way is a good thing for those that believe in this philosophy.  This twisted philosophy is being promoted in our movies, in our television shows, in our music, in countless books, on many of the most prominent websites in the world, and it is being taught at nearly all of the most important colleges and universities on the planet.  The people promoting this philosophy have very, very deep pockets, and they are actually convinced that they are helping to “save the world” by trying to reduce the size of the human population.  In fact, many of them are entirely convinced that we are in a “life or death” struggle for the fate of the planet, and that if humanity does not willingly choose to embrace population control soon, then a solution will have to be “forced” upon them.

Yes, I know that all of this may sound like something out of a science fiction novel.  But there are a whole lot of people out there that are absolutely obsessed with this stuff, and many of them are in very prominent positions around the globe.

The following are 30 population control quotes which show that the elite truly believe that humans are a plague upon the earth and that a great culling is necessary…

1. UK Television Presenter Sir David Attenborough: “We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now”

2. Paul Ehrlich, a former science adviser to president George W. Bush and the author of “The Population Bomb”: “To our minds, the fundamental cure, reducing the scale of the human enterprise (including the size of the population) to keep its aggregate consumption within the carrying capacity of Earth is obvious but too much neglected or denied”

3. Paul Ehrlich again, this time on the size of families: “Nobody, in my view, has the right to have 12 children or even three unless the second pregnancy is twins”

4. Dave Foreman, the co-founder of Earth First: “We humans have become a disease, the Humanpox.”

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Netanyahu Says He Appreciates US Veto of UN Gaza Ceasefire Resolution

Posted by M. C. on December 11, 2023

The US is facing global backlash for being the only member of the UN Security Council to vote against the resolution

by Dave DeCamp

antiwar.com

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said he appreciated the US vetoing a UN Security Council resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and vowed to continue his war in the besieged enclave, which has killed at least 18,000 Palestinians.

“Other countries must also understand that it’s impossible to support the elimination of Hamas on one side and on the other to call for the end of the war, which will prevent the elimination of Hamas,” Netanyahu said.

“Therefore, Israel will continue our just war to eliminate Hamas and achieve the war’s other objectives that we set,” he added.

The US is facing global backlash and criticism from fellow UN Security Council members for being the only one to vote against the ceasefire resolution as Israel is killing civilians at a historic pace.

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Yes, Heavy Regulation Hurts the Economy. Just Look at France.

Posted by M. C. on December 11, 2023

We’re often told European countries are better off thanks to big-government policies. So why is the U.S. beating France in many important ways?

Veronique de Rugy

reason.com

A man protests in France during a yellow vest demonstration | Telmo Pinto/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom

A man protests in France during a yellow vest demonstration (Telmo Pinto/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)

It’s fashionable to claim that the free market ideas of Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman have failed the country, and that it’s time for new policies. Campaigning in 2020, Joe Biden declared that “Milton Friedman isn’t running the show anymore.” More recently, New York Times columnist David Leonhardt noted that people like Friedman promised that the free market “would bring prosperity for all. It has not.”

This is nonsense. For one thing, I wish we lived in a world fashioned more fully by Friedman’s ideas. Sadly, while his insights have indeed influenced some U.S. economic policies, particularly during former President Ronald Reagan’s administration, the extent of their implementation has been quite limited.

Friedman, for example, would be appalled that federal debt is now roughly the size of annual gross domestic product (GDP), having grown like a kudzu vine since registering at around 25 percent in the early 1980s. Taxes remain lower since the Reagan revolution took place, but our incomes are often taxed multiple times. Nearly every aspect of our lives is regulated by various agencies—local, state, and national. And—no surprise—cronyism is alive and well.

Still, Friedman’s critics are right to treat him as a monumental figure. His ideas helped make trade freer and school choice mainstream. His clarity in contrasting markets with government opened many eyes to the benefits of capitalism. We are immeasurably better off for it. If you don’t believe me, look at my native France, where Friedman has had almost no influence.

The French economy is weighed down by one of the heaviest tax levels among wealthy democratic nations, with regressive taxes and social security contributions representing a significant portion of GDP. This tax haul funds France’s extensive web of social welfare programs, including health care, education, and pensions.

French regulation is also comprehensive, covering many aspects of employment, business operations, and environmental protection. The labor code is particularly onerous. Additionally, its government plays a direct role in the economy, with a significant number of partially state-owned enterprises and interventionist policies intended to safeguard employment and prioritize equality and social cohesion.

Let’s see how they’re doing.

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Husband Reaches Out To NSA To See If They Know What His Wife Wants For Christmas

Posted by M. C. on December 10, 2023

https://babylonbee.com/news/husband-reaches-out-to-nsa-to-see-if-they-know-what-his-wife-wants-for-christmas

Article Image

FAYETTEVILLE, AR — As the December days began to tick away, a local man grew so desperate in his attempt to buy his wife a great Christmas gift that he decided to reach out to the National Security Agency to find out what she wants.

“I figured it’s my best shot,” said Willard McBane. “She’s always so difficult to buy for, and she doesn’t ever give me any hints, so I knew I needed to bring the NSA in on this one.”

At first, Willard’s attempts to ask for help were subtle. “I just started speaking out loud whenever I was around my phone or near our Amazon Alexa,” he said. “I’d just wonder aloud to myself ‘Gee, I wonder what Margaret wants for Christmas this year.’ It didn’t seem to yield any results, so I decided I needed to contact the NSA directly.”

A spokesman for the NSA acknowledged that the agency began receiving phone calls and emails from McBane last week. “Yes, I can confirm that we were contacted by a Mr. Willard McBane,” said Agent Dan Henry. “I am not at liberty to divulge the details of our conversations with Mr. McBane at this time, nor am I able to confirm whether or not we advised him that his wife would really love a 64-ounce Stanley Quencher insulated tumbler with a straw, preferably in the Rose Quartz Glow color.”

At publishing time, Willard had reportedly received the information he was seeking and had also advised the NSA that he would appreciate it if they would somehow get word to Margaret that he would prefer it if she stopped putting green peppers in her chili.

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Public Educators Warn Low Literacy Rates May Prevent Kids From Reading About Gay Sex

Posted by M. C. on December 9, 2023

https://babylonbee.com/news/public-educators-warn-high-illiteracy-rates-may-prevent-kids-from-reading-about-gay-sex

Article Image

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Recent reports shining a harsh light on illiteracy among public school students have sparked concern among public educators. Public school teachers and their unions are warning that high illiteracy rates may prevent kids from reading about gay sex.

“What’s the point of sneaking books about gay sex into public schools if the kids are unable to read them?” said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to a concerned group of public school teachers. “So many books about kink, fetishes, and bestiality are going to waste without being consumed by young readers. This is a travesty.”

Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers issued a similar warning, stating emphatically that “As the legal guardians of America’s youngest generations, it is up to us to teach kids how to read furry-themed porn written by Marxist transbian xey/xems.”

At publishing time, President Biden had downplayed concerns over American illiteracy among schoolkids, reminding the public that “I can’t read neither.”

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